asked the Minister for Economic Planning and Development whether he has taken any special initiative or action since Ireland assumed Presidency of the EC with regard to the Regional Fund and if he will make a full statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - EC Regional and Social Funds.
114.
As the Deputy is probably aware, the review of the Community's Regional Policy including the Regional Fund Regulation was only completed in February of this year when the Council adopted a resolution on Guidelines for a Community Regional Policy and a regulation amending the Regional Fund Regulation. The amending fund regulation provides that the next three-year review by the Council will take place before 1 January 1981 on the basis of Commission proposals. In the period which has elapsed since February last, no useful initiative could be taken by us in expediting such proposals pending more experience by the member states and the Commission with the provisions of the amending regulation.
I should mention, however, that one of the main innovations resulting from the recent review is the establishment of a non-quota section in the regional fund. This is intended to finance specific Community regional development measures including, as a result of an initiative by the Government here, requests for aid in border areas situated in the poorest regions of the Community.
The Commission has now finalised its first series of proposals for Non-Quota Section assistance and these were submitted to the Council on 16 October last. These proposals concern five programme areas including, at the request of the Irish and UK Governments, a programme of assistance for the development of the Irish border areas.
Considering the inordinate delay in getting the Council's agreement to the amending fund regulation, I do not wish to play down the difficulties involved but I can assure the Deputy that during our Presidency we aim to have these proposals examined as quickly as possible and hopefully adopted by the end of the year. The Deputy will, no doubt, be pleased to know that the European Parliament is being consulted on these proposals.
115.
asked the Minister for Economic Planning and Development the reasons for the recent decision to reduce the amount of the EEC Regional Fund and if he will make a statement on the matter.
116.
asked the Minister for Economic Planning and Development the reasons for the Government's agreement to the reduction in the EEC Regional Fund from £630 million in 1979 to £570 million for 1980.
117.
asked the Minister for Economic Planning and Development the reasons he agreed to a drastic reduction by the European Council of Ministers in the sum allocated for regional aid by the Commission in the 1980 draft budget and how this reconciles with previous Government's commitments.
118.
asked the Minister for Economic Planning and Development if the effects of the reduction in the funds available to this country, as a result of the reduced EEC Regional Fund proposed in the draft Budget for 1980, have been measured.
119.
asked the Minister for Economic Planning and Development if the reduction in the EEC Regional Fund allocation to Ireland for 1980 was raised with Herr Schmidt, the German Chancellor, during the latter's recent visit and, if so, the result.
120.
asked the Minister for Economic Planning and Development if he has satisfied himself that the cuts imposed by the Council of Ministers in the EEC Regional and Social Funds are satisfactory from either the national or Community viewpoint.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 115 to 120, inclusive, together.
In reply, I should like to clear up the misunderstandings, deliberate or otherwise, which seem to have given rise to these Questions which were put down following the meeting of the Budget Council on 11 September 1979 when it adopted a draft budget for 1980 and which concerns the effects of the adoption of this draft budget on the Community's Regional and Social Funds.
The first point to emphasise is that Council decisions on the Community's budget are taken on a qualified majority basis and the question of our exercising a veto to secure higher figures than are agreed by qualified majority does not arise.
As the Council proceedings are confidential, it would not be appropriate for me to go into details as to the considerations which influenced member states in their respective negotiating positions, or to reveal these positions, except to say that, for instance, as far as the Regional Fund was concerned the 1980 allocation for the Fund of 650 million EUA (£436 million) established by the European Council in December 1977 weighed most heavily on certain member states. Other member states, including Ireland were seeking substantial increases in the funds, in our case because we regard the sums available as being completely inadequate by reference to the scale of the regional and social problems to be tackled at Community level.
Long and arduous negotiations took place before compromise figures of 1,015 million EUA and 876 million EUA respectively emerged at the Council's second reading of the budget on 23 November. These were the highest figures for which a qualified majority could be found representing increases of 7.4 per cent and 13.8 per cent over the 1979 figures of 945 million EUA and 770 million EUA respectively and, as far as the Regional Fund was concerned, an increase of 56 per cent over the figure planned for 1980 by the European Council in December 1977.
Finally, I must emphasise that the 1980 EEC Budget has not been adopted by the budgetary authority which comprises the Council and the Parliament. The position now is that following discussions between the two institutions on 13 December, Parliament has rejected the draft 1980 budget. Further discussion will therefore have to take place in the new year with a view to agreement being reached on the budget.
121.
asked the Minister for Economic Planning and Development in relation to the European Regional Fund, the number of projects that have been assisted in 1977 and 1978; the percentage of the total cost which was provided and the amount in each case of the projects which have been funded with a brief description of each project.
Assistance from the European Regional Development Fund was approved in respect of 73 Irish projects in 1977 and 121 projects in 1978. A description of these projects together with details of their overall cost, of the overall contribution by the Regional Fund, and the total national contribution will be found by the Deputy in replies (Volume 307, columns 2499-2508) and (Volume 311, columns 1161-1165) to Parliamentary Questions by Deputy Enright on 29 June 1978 and by Deputy O'Connell on 14 February 1979.
For the reasons explained in these replies it is not the practice nor is it feasible to give the amount of fund aid for individual projects. This is due to the fact that, under the fund regulation, the Commission determines a single aggregate aid figure for grouped applications, namely grouped projects each costing less than 10 million EUA, or £6.7 million, which account for the major proportion of Irish-assisted projects.